Thursday, February 10, 2011

Exciting things

Our next exciting upcoming event is Show Season. That is by far our favorite part of alpaca farming. We love traveling to different area. We love meeting up with other alpaca farmers. We love showing off our animals. While we know they won't all do as well in the show ring as we would hope, we find that we learn so much at shows, that even the poor placements help us grow as farmers.

After show season there is shearing. While the actual shearing is really hard work, it is wonderful to have that luxurious fiber to work with. This year we are committed to sending some to a mill to get mill spun yarn and rovings. There is not enough time for me to spin all of it myself, so we are determined to get some of it to the mill this year.

But another exiciting time is Cria Season. This year we are expecting six cria: from Kateri, Victoria, Sancha, Snickers, Lucy and Tehya. Their due dates are listed at the bottom of my blog. Maddie did not take with her pregnancy and we found out too late in the season to rebred her. Latte had a cria in late September, too late in the year for us to want to bred her for that time of year again. And Miss Kitty came open, she needs some work before we will breed her (she needs to lose some weight).

The first cria due this year will come from our own Tehya. Tehya was born on our farm, she was our first years cria. I saw Tehya be born, the first delivery I saw from beginning to end. Tehya did spectacular in the show ring. I am so excited to see what she will produce!

Lately, Tehya has been looking very pregnant. Not all females show that they are pregnant, and maybe she doesn't to the naked eye. From the side, not much to see:

I notice how her sides pops when she is viewed from the front (or back), more so than she ever did before:

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Oak Haven Alpacas, LLC, & Oak Haven Sheep, LLC

The Adventure of a Lifetime

Our farming adventure began with the purchase of 3 alpacas in the fall of 2007. This eventually grew to an alpaca farm that birthed 23 cria. While we averaged 20 alpacas on a farm at any given time, we hit a peek of over 30 alpacas. We were involved in every aspect of alpaca farming: from breeding decisions, birthing, to attending alpaca shows, and shearing our own alpacas along with making product from their luscious fiber (hand spinning yarn and knitting product). We participated in 24 alpaca shows, and became very involved in the alpaca community.

In 2013 we added hair sheep to our farm.

Throughout this process we continued to tweak and revise our business plan. Our business plan evolved over time, and in 2013 it became clear that our goal was to raise grass fed animals for human consumption. While the initial plan was for this to go along side of alpaca farming, we slowly came to the conclusion our adventure was going to take us somewhere else.

In 2013 we began to sell off our alpaca herd to begin our new adventure with grass fed sheep and cattle.

Our adventure is still unfolding, so please, join us in our adventure of a lifetime as our journey unfolds.